A MAN kidnapped his girlfriend, drove her “like a maniac” to remote woodland and gave her such a savage beating she was left close to death in a coma, a court heard yesterday.

Tirion Lewis’ ordeal began when Wayne Anthony Fox, 23, smashed his fist through the driver’s door of her Ford Ka as she sat listening to music outside her home in Penrhyncoch, Aberystwyth, with her best friend Miriam Evans in September 2009.

Earlier, paranoid schizophrenic Fox, of Bow Street, Aberystwyth, had been heard talking “nonsensically” and mumbling “why are you doing this to me?”

Frank Phillips, prosecuting at Swansea Crown Court, said after taking over the wheel of the car with the two terrified 19-year-old women in the front seat, he drove off towards woodland.

He said: “He was driving like a maniac at high speeds and was drunk. He punched both women in the head while driving.”

At one point, said Mr Phillips, Fox drove along a rough track at high speed into an iron forestry barrier.

Seconds later Fox brought the car to a screeching halt, dragged Aberystwyth University student Tirion out of the car and began pummelling her with punches and kicks.

Mr Phillips said: “Miriam tried to stop him but she remembers the defendant pulling her by the hair to the floor and he began kicking her to the face. He then returned his attention to Tirion Lewis, turned her over from her back to her front and sat astride her punching her non-stop.”

The prosecutor told the jury: “Miriam described it as ‘just punch after punch’.”

As Fox left the scene in the Ford Ka, Miss Evans said the vehicle door “scraped” over Tirion as she lay on the ground.

Fox sped off leaving Miss Evans to stagger through pitch darkness in the forestry around 100 yards away to Melanie Walters’ home from where police were called.

Mr Phillips said Tirion was “not responding” and a gurgling sound could be heard coming from her chest. When paramedics arrived, he said, they found Tirion’s face was so badly smashed they “could not tell what sex she was”.

She was taken to Bronglais Hospital in Aberystwyth where a consultant said that in his 23-year career he had never seen a person so severely beaten.

Tirion’s injuries included a broken pelvis, blood in one of her lungs, kidney damage, severe “burns” to her arms after being dragged by Fox and a brain injury so severe she was still suffering cognitive difficulties and problems with memory and attention.

Mr Phillips added: “She is not in a state to bear witness to the events that overtook her which is the reason we will not be hearing from her.”

After Fox made off from the scene he overturned and crashed the Ford Ka on an embankment.

Mr Phillips Fox terrified the Dimmock family by bursting into their home in Aberystwyth and demanding the keys to their Mazda car parked outside.

Mr Phillips said father-of-two Darren Dimmock handed over the keys to Fox who continually stalled the car before abandoning it then rushing back to the Dimmocks’ home only to be stopped by Mr Dimmock “putting his shoulder” to the door.

Fox made his way “across country” to his parents’ home in Bow Street, Aberystwyth where he woke up his parents and, covered in mud, apologised to his father Maurice and said he “wanted to say his goodbyes”.

He was arrested after a scuffle and told police: “Last night I tried to drown myself in the river but there wasn’t enough water.”

Mr Phillips said that Fox had pleaded guilty to charges including kidnap, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and dangerous driving. But the issue for the jury would be, he said, that given Fox’s mental state, whether he had the capability and capacity to form intent to commit the crimes he denies.

Fox has pleaded not guilty to attempting to murder Tirion, causing her grievous bodily harm with intent and burglary.

The jury was told that after being treated in Aberystwyth initially, Tirion was transferred to Morriston Hospital in Swansea.

Mr Phillips said doctors described Tirion’s recovery so far as “miraculous” but added she would need continuing care.

Professor Ian Pallister, trauma consultant at Morriston Hospital, said “without a shadow of a doubt” without advanced life support Tirion would not have survived.